A walk in the Alps

Born in Frankfurt am Main in 1984, Simone Gruppe received her first trumpet lessons at the age of 9 at the Frankfurt Youth Music School with Sunhild Pfeiffer. After graduating from high school, she first studied with Prof. Klaus Schuhwerk, Heiko Hermann and Balázs Nemes at the Frankfurt University of Music and with Prof. Sepp Eidenberger at the Bruckner University in Linz/Austria. She then moved to the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe to study with Prof. Reinhold Friedrich, where she completed her master’s degree with distinction.

She gained orchestral experience in the European Youth Orchestra (EUYO) and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, among others. After internships with the orchestra of the National Theater Mannheim and the Stuttgart Philharmonic, she has been a member of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since 2010.

Anne Mentzen was born in Braunschweig in 1981, where she received her first piano lessons at the age of five. At the age of nine she began horn lessons and from 1998 was trained by Theodor Wiemes, principal horn of the Radiophilharmonie Hannover.

After graduating from high school, she began studying horn in the fall of 2000 in the class of Marie-Luise Neunecker at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main. From 2003 she studied with Thomas Hauschild at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig, where she graduated with honors.

Anne Mentzen won several federal prizes at “Jugend musiziert” as well as prizes at other competitions, both with the horn and on the piano. In 1999, in addition to the first national prize, she was awarded a special prize by the Hanover Artists’ Association and in 2000 she was also awarded the Lower Saxony Prize for “outstanding achievements in the cultural field”. She has also received scholarships from the Volkswagen Bank (1999), the Richard Wagner Association (2000), and the Gustav Mahler Academy (2002, 2005).

The hornist gained orchestral experience in the state and national youth orchestras, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, and was invited several times to the International Orchestra Academy of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. After an internship with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and a temporary position with the Staatsorchester Kassel, she went to the Deutsche Oper Berlin as an intern in 2005.

Since 2006 Anne Mentzen has been a horn player with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. Here she plays in various chamber music formations, such as the ensemble “Samtblech”.

Hannes Hölzl was born in 1987 in Bad Hofgastein, Austria (province of Salzburg). After his musical education started with playing the recorder, he switched to the tenor horn at the age of 5. At the age of 10, he additionally received trombone lessons from Goldegg music school teacher Gernot Pracher. Later he studied at the renowned university “Mozarteum” in Salzburg with Prof. Dany Bonvin.

In the years 1998 to 2000 Hannes Hölzl passed the performance badges of the Austrian Brass Band Association in bronze, silver and gold, all with “excellent success”. Furthermore, he was successful in numerous international competitions: starting as winner of the competition “Prima la musica”, receiving the 2nd prize in Cordoba, Argentina as well as the 1st prize at the “European Solo Champion” in Montreux, the 4th prize at the International Brass Competition in Markneukirchen-Germany, the 4th prize at the “Città” competition in Italy, the 2nd Prize at the “Prague Spring”(1st Prize was not awarded), where he also received the “Gustav Mahler Prize” as the youngest finalist of the whole competition and the “Prize of the City of Prague” as the most successful finalist of the trombone competition. He was also awarded the 2nd prize at the International Trombone Competition in Budapest, also he received the Promotional Prize of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.

Hannes Hölzl is a member of various brass ensembles and performs as a soloist with different brass and symphony orchestras at home and abroad, including China, America, Tunisia, Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, Germany…

At the age of 18 Hannes Hölzl began his career in the great symphony orchestra with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. In the same year he won a 2 year internship with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. During this time Hannes Hölzl gained his first permanent position at the Mainfrankentheater Würzburg, which he took up at the age of 21 as solo trombonist. Since 2012 he is now solo trombonist of the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin.

Fabian Neckermann, born in 1995 in Ochsenfurt, Lower Franconia, has been principal tuba in the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since 2018 and has also been a lecturer at the Anton Rubinstein International Music Academy since 2021.
After starting out in the local music association, he completed a two-year training programme to become a state-certified ensemble leader at the vocational school for music in Bad Königshofen with instrumental teacher Udo Schneider. In 2013, he studied with Prof. Jens Bjørn-Larsen at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, where he completed his bachelor’s degree with top marks.

He gained his first orchestral experience as a member of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and the European Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, as well as an academy member of the Nuremberg State Philharmonic and the Bavarian State Orchestra in Munich.
Guest appearances as an orchestral musician have also taken him to the opera houses in Würzburg, Saarbrücken, Bonn, Hamburg and Berlin, as well as to the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic.

Fabian Neckermann was a finalist in the 2016 German Music Competition, whereupon he received a special prize from the Capriccio Kulturforum – Gesellschaft zur Förderung von klassischer Musik und Kultur e.V. and was accepted as a scholarship holder in the 61st Federal Selection of Concerts by Young Artists. In the final, he performed as a soloist with the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn.

With his ensemble “Trio 21meter60”, consisting of three tubas, he was awarded the OPUS KLASSIK in 2022.
He is also a regular guest in ensembles such as “Genesis Brass”, the “Brass Ensemble Ludwig Güttler” and the “Brass Ensemble of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra”.

Georg Schwark is a chamber musician known for his playful and experimental approach to performance. Early in his career, he began challenging conventional concert formats, developing music-theatre productions in close collaboration with Wenzel, including TUBAWADUO, The Kettledrummer’s Anticipation of Schiller’s “Ode to Joy”, and Radio Tubawahn. Among his most celebrated projects was a staging of Mauricio Kagel’s Varieté.

For many years, he and his colleague Alexander Voigt jointly presented and staged a concert series by the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (RSB) at the Radialsystem in Berlin. He also collaborated for several years with Frido Solter of the Deutsches Theater Berlin. As a narrator, he has appeared in RSB performances of Peter and the Wolf, Carnival of the Animals, and numerous other works.

Schwark was for many years principal tubist of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (RSB).